From the past, with cataract surgery and the like, a method has been used for which the intracapsular crystalline lens is extracted through an incision provided in ocular tissue such as the cornea (sclera) or anterior capsule of the lens or the like, and after removal, an intraocular lens substituted for that crystalline lens is inserted into the eye using that incision, and arranged within the capsule.
With this intraocular lens surgical operation method, there has been used an intraocular lens insertion device as noted in Patent Document 1 (Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application JP-A-2003-70829) and Patent Document 2 (Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. JP-A-2004-351196). With these intraocular lens insertion devices, the insertion tube part provided at the tip of the device main unit is made to be inserted and enter into the eye through the eye incision, and in a state with the intraocular lens deformed to be smaller within the device main unit, it is made to be extruded into the eye from the tip opening of the insertion tube part. Then, the intraocular lens is arranged within the capsule by the intraocular lens which was extruded into the eye expanding by its own restoration force within the capsule. If this kind of intraocular lens insertion device is used, it is possible to keep the incision small, making it possible to reduce the trouble required for the surgical operation and also possible to reduce the occurrence of postoperative astigmatism and the risk of infection.
However, many intraocular lenses are regulated in terms of the lens front-back direction, requiring that the lens front-back surface is set correctly for arrangement within the capsule. The reason for regulating the lens front-back direction is because there are items for which a haptic is tilted toward the lens front surface (cornea side) so that the optical portion is pressed on the inner surface of the back part (vitreous body side) of the crystalline capsule with the purpose of inhibiting secondary cataracts and the like.
However, when a surgical operation is done using the prior art intraocular lens insertion device, there was the problem that the intraocular lens extruded into the eye easily deployed within the capsule with the front-back surfaces inverted. Reinverting an intraocular lens which has deployed inverted within the capsule in this way into the proper direction within the capsule after surgery is very difficult. Therefore, the practitioner needs to do a special operation such as trying to insert the intraocular lens with the insertion device displaced in the rotation direction by the amount it is assumed the intraocular lens will be inverted in advance, or rotating the insertion device at the moment the intraocular lens is extruded from the insertion device and expands within the capsule. Naturally, this kind of work requires skill and is not easy in either case. In particular, rotating an insertion tube part that has been inserted in the eye requires work to be done carefully so as not to cause damage to biological tissue such as the eye incision or the like, and there was the problem that this was a heavy burden on the practitioner.